As for why, it's not known for sure. Maybe it's a reflection of their narcissism and total lack of inhibitions. Maybe they've decided that since they've already punted a few puppies, called down the lightning, and donned the Spikes of Villainy, they may as well have fun with it. And maybe the moral depravity of their act is balanced by how much fun they are to watch. Or this is used to indicate how Power and Evil feel Good. Whatever the reason, bacon and scenery are important parts of every villain's daily balanced breakfast.

Also, when the villains are pretending to be good guys in some stories, they don't really act hammy, but when they show who they really are, they let loose, almost as if being a Large Ham is their true nature.

Marder: What is the point of eternal peace? Life and death clash against each other. Lusts and ideals intertwine, and joys and sorrows color this world. Therefore, paradise... can only be unbearable grief. It can only be unbound joy. The paradise of all living things is, indeed, in chaos.

He was freshly hatched as the reincarnation of the even Ax Crazier Piccolo Daimaou during his villain arc. One timeskip later and we have an older, more mature Piccolo Jr. forced into an Enemy Mine with Goku, leading to Piccolo's face turn. So his progression from hammy to stoic is probably justified as just Piccolo growing up.

In the anime series proper, Cell was more-or-less a straight villain. In the video games, however, he steps it up on the ham, with each new release making him even hammier. Dragonball Xenoverse, especially, has him at his hammiest, as his lines as your mentor prove.

"Splendid! Now, this was a real fight! I'd totally hug you right now if that was something I did!"

This was mostly averted in Puella Magi Madoka Magica since the closest thing to a Big Bad, Kyuubey, was more The Stoic... but then Walpurgisnacht came in and single-handedly engulfed the scenery in thick, high-pitched, crazy ham.

And as soon as Homura had a Face–Heel Turn in The Rebellion Story, she blew both of them out of the water.

In Princess Tutu, Mytho acts like a very hammy villain after he has been poisoned by the Raven's blood.

"Why won't you love me?!"

General rule in One Piece: the hammier the villain, the more likely they are to be curb-stomped by the Straw Hats. More difficult opponents aren't as hammy. Crocodile wasn't hammy at all (Evil Laugh aside) and was one of Luffy's hardest enemies. Subverted with Oars... since, well, he wasLuffy.

The Espada from Bleach were a mixed bag since some (Barragan, Grimmjow, Yammy, Nnoitra, Szayel, Drunk with Power!Aizen) were very hammy and others (Ulquiorra, Halibel, Stark) were much calmer. But once the Vandereich appeared, they started to put on the pork with total and unapologetic gusto, with people like Mask de Masculine and non-Stoic!AsNodt as their top hams.

Mewtwo, during his stint as a villain in the English dub of Pokémon: The First Movie, which is not that surprising, considering 4Kids was the one who did the dub.

Freed Sellzen in High School Dx D fits this trope. An Ax-Crazy exorcist who gets off on killing devils and does so for the hell of it. He'll also overact whenever he makes his onscreen appearances as well.

Ragyo Kiryuin in Kill la Kill is not always hammy, but whenever she's in the middle of one of her evil speeches, or gloating, her ham factor shoots through the roof.

Averted later on, as Prussia was increasingly sympathetic as the series/webcomic went on, restoring the title of "most villainous" to the resident Soft-Spoken SadistRussia. And then Russia himself became increasingly Lighter and Softer, more sympathetic and less "menacing".

Light from Death Note is such a ham that he'll "take a potato chip.....and EAT IT!"

Ryuk wasn't exactly the most quiet villain, either. "THE SYMPTHOMS ARE STARTING!"

Shuu Tsukiyama from Tokyo Ghoul has on several occasions tried to eat Kaneki and his friends. However, he practically has an orgasm when smelling Kaneki's blood on a piece of cloth, and his gratuitous use of French, Italian, and English phrases makes the character deliciously cheesy.

Lex: I'm the only sane inmate of Asylum Earth. I'm not eager to hand tomorrow over to an interplanetary extremist with laser eyes. There's only room on this world for one leader, Superman. When I'm finished with you, every last gibbon out there will know you for the menace you are... and they'll realize that Lex Luthor is their savior.

Protector: I warned you, Superman! I told you to leave the polluting industries alone! But no — you wouldn't listen! You've set yourself up as judge, jury, and executioner — and to that, the Protector says NO!

Many other Batman villains fall into this as well, especially in the campy 60's series and some of the movies (in Batman Forever, The Riddler, played by Jim Carrey, even asks: "Was that over the top? I can never tell").

Marik is so hammy that he can hardly express himself like a regular person. And it goes Up to Eleven when Melvin takes over: he is hammy even when trying to open a door.

While usually more posed and calm than Marik, Bakura has his moments too.

Dartz combines it with a ridiculous accent that makes him almost impossible for his minions to understand.

Movie villains Anubis ("NOW YOU WILL DIE, AND THEN YOU WILL BE DEAD, BECAUSE I WILL HAVE KILLED YOU ! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA") and Paradox ("PWOTAGONISTS !") take it to such extremes it becomes ridiculous even for the main characters.

Arguably one of the better parts of The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue is Martin's dramatically hammy performance in the later portion of the film performed by Eric Idle, who seems to have loads of fun delivering every last line. He doesn't just chew the scenary as Martin, he gobbles it up whole, shats it back out, and then gobbles it up again, rinse and repeat twice more. ("You'll be happy. Oh, so happy, if youjust SAY YYYYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!")

This is actually something of an occupational hazard for Sith, since they draw their power from raw passion and self restraint is, consequently, not exactly on the agenda. Notice that Palpatine is always at his hammiest when using or about to use The Dark Side. His apprentices Count Dooku and Darth Vader also frequently talk in a menacing to the point of exaggeration mannder (with Vader having the bonus of gesturing given his face is obscured by a mask).

General Grievous serves as a proto-Darth Vader, and is even hammier than him, never dialing down on the dramatic speech (punctuated by coughs).

Almost every villain in TRON: Legacy is a Large Ham (with the exception of Rinzler), but especially the Big Bad. Clu uses his hamminess to make our world open and available to all of his programs. Yes! TO ALL OF THEM!!! And that's before you get to his agent, Zuse, who chews the scenery with his Bowie-esque nature. A ying and yang of hams, if you think about it.

Come to think of it, 90% of Tim Curry's roles fall under this. If he's playing a villain, there's a good chance it'll be an awesomely hammy performance. Tim Curry does not know any other way to act other than completely over the top, chewing every piece of scenery in sight. And we love him for it.

"Excuse me, sir!! Do you have Prince Albert in a can?? YOU DO?? Well, ya better let the poor guy out!"

Freddy Krueger in the later A Nightmare on Elm Street films, as he started to have more fun tormenting his victims and became a theatrical wisecracker.

As said above, a requirement for any Batman movie villain. Possible aversions are from The Dark Knight Saga: Ra's al Ghul is suave and subdued, and Two-Face is dead serious, particularly compared to The Joker.

This trope is seen in a nutshell in the famous "I am the law!" scene in Judge Dredd. The good guy spits out the ultra-hammy "You betrayed the law!", and just to show that evil goes one step further, the bad guy responds with "LAAAWW!!!!" taken Up to Eleven.

Whenever someone gets possessed in Night of the Demons (1988) and its sequels, you can bet they'll start chewing scenery as well as faces.

In the live-action adaptation of The Last Airbender, Commander Zhao, played by Aasif Mandvi. Averted with Fire Lord Ozai, who is somewhat of a Large Ham in the original cartoon, but is soft-spoken and contemplative in the film.

Honestly, it's easier to name the Big Bad that aren't hammy. The Winter Soldier is fairly low key and has barely any lines in the movie (the only time he's Suddenly Shouting, it's played for drama), Alexander Pierce is Soft-Spoken Sadist and Baron Zemo never raises his voice about slightly loud as he's a solider on the revenge quest, he's not a cackling villain.

The franchise' Greater Scope Villain Thanos hasn't had much screen time, in his scene in The Stinger of The Avengers he manages to ham without even talking. It only goes up from there when he actually gets a speaking role in Guardians Of the Galaxy.

In the 1980's film He-Man, Frank Langella made Skeletor a Shakespearean villain with relish. He ultimately made him a force to be feared of with his performance from that of a campy villain in the cartoons.

Darwin Mayflower: If da Vinci were alive today, he'd be eating microwave sushi, naked, in the back of a Cadillac with the both of us! History! Tradition! Culture! Are not concepts! These are trophies I keep in my den as paperweights!

Khan: I've done worse than kill you. I've hurt you. And I wish to go on hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her...marooned for all eternity in the centre of a dead planet...Buried alive...Buried aliiiiiiive...note And this was him being subtle!

In Cube Zero Canadian actor Michael Riley is completely hamming it up as Jax, the main bad guy the controllers upstairs send down. He's basically an over-the-top caricature who just revels in his evil and is clearly enjoying himself thoroughly.

Downfall: Hitler, who's going on a movie-long Villainous Breakdown. "THAT WAS AN ORDER! STEINER'S ASSAULT WAS AN ORDER!'' Who do you think you are to disobey an order I give?! So this is what it has come to... The military has been lying to me... Everyone has been lying to me, even the SS!"

Rhys Wakefield as the "Polite Leader" of the gang trying to invade Ethan Hawke's house in The Purge.

In The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Snow's conversation with Katniss doesn't involve him shouting or gesticulating or anything like that, but now that he's dropped his facade, his stoic expression and soft monotone have been replaced with openly evil sneering and sadism.

Retroactive: The murderous Frank, as played by Jim Belushi, is constantly cracking bad jokes and chewing up the scenery around him.

The hamminess is been disputed between Jellon Lamb (John Hurt), who drunkly chews every piece of the bar's scenery, and the Burns family led by Arthur (Danny Huston) in The Proposition. Then Arthur kills Lamb for trying to kill Charlie, leaving the hammy niche to him.

The Hobbit has Smaug, much like in the source material. Along with overly dramatic dialogue lifted from the book, he's voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch. Going further than book he manages to some theatrical gestures, despite being a giant snake like creature with no hands, like Circling Monologue and shows of the sheer scope of his massive most showoffy way he can.

Visser Three in Animorphs. While thought-speak can be directed at one, several, or even everyone in range, the Visser is CONSTANTLY BROADCASTING HIS PRESENCE to all, including his enemies. In fact, in the whole series (when in an Andalite body), he speaks to one person at a time a grand total of ONCE.

Averted by Lily Weatherwax in Witches Abroad; she's actually somewhat menacingly toned down. What makes this instance notable, though, is the way her sister, Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, reacts; the very fact that Lily isn't Chewing the Scenery enrages her as much as all the damage she's done to innocent lives over the years. Lily went off to be the bad sister, leaving Esme to be the good one, but Lily spent the whole time deluding herself that she was the good one, so even though there was no doubt which sister she was, she never took the opportunity to enjoy it. To Granny, this is almost as bad as denying Esme the choice in the first place.

Venandakatra the Vile in the Belisarius Series. He is a devotee of every vice known to man, and some that haven't been discovered to this day. He loves hurting people, except when they fight back. He wages war by pitching an array of tents that are more ostentatious and less tasteful than the palaces of more Modest Royalty, and then makes guarding his comfort a primary objective of his campaigns. He has the most expensive feasts constantly dumped into his mouth and treats slave girls much like food, to be consumed and the husks discarded; and sex to him is no fun unless combined with torture. The book also makes a point of mentioning that he is called The Vile and not The Cruel because the latter might imply respect. In general, the chief pleasure a reader takes in his character is that it is almost impossible to imagine someone so extravagantly and flamboyantly evil - even if we know such people exist in Real Life.

In addition, his Royal Brat status means that a good chunk of his dialogue consists of loud, semi-coherent rage.

Kerrigor in Sabriel. "Blood for the breaking!" Apparently, he was a flamboyant guy who loved having every eye on him even while alive; after becoming undead, getting Drunk on the Dark Side, and becoming quite possibly the most powerful active being on the planet, this natural tendency got taken Up to Eleven.

Ian McNeice definitely shows it in his portrayal of the baron in the miniseries.

Invoked in The Tamuli, when the normally restrained Sir Bevier goes undercover at the villain's camp as a mercenary. He attempts to appear "dangerously competent", but his stage training takes over and, as a result, he ends up looking like a homicidal maniac and leaves the entire camp terrified of him.

Ishamael is a rather impressive ham in his persona as Ba'alzamon, giving some rather spectacular Card-Carrying Villain rants owing to being Drunk on the Dark Side. Subverted when he comes back later in the series as Moridin, and is much calmer and more restrained, coming across as almost resigned at times, and is much scarier for it.

Lanfear is usually Affably Evil, especially around Rand. Just don't mash her Berserk Button, because we're not kidding about the "berserk" part. Lanfear is one of the most deadly channelers of all time, and in a screaming temper she's more than capable of blasting just about anyone in her way to ash.

Demandred appears at first to be a complete aversion; the guy is stoic to the point of hardly ever showing genuine emotion except for the occasional glimpse of the seething core of epic rage at the heart of his personality. Then in the final book he finally lets all that hate out, in the process becoming the Large Ham he was born to be.

Many of Harry Dresden's enemies are this to some degree. Drunk on the Dark Side is quite common throughout the series, and coupled with the Antiquated Linguistics of many supernatural creatures, this is a great recipe for some serious ham. The standout example is probably Lord Raith, who is explicitly compared to a movie villain in his extremely over-the-top and melodramatic dialogue, but many other characters also fit the bill.

The main villian in Fancy Apartments is Vrotheus the Vile, who hams up any line he can. It's hard to tell if that's his nature, or if he just likes being dramatic. Oddly enough, he still seems a serious threat despite it.

Opal Koboi from Artemis Fowl practically invented Evil Is Hammy. Especially in the eighth book. She even lampshades it.

"He is mine. The ultimate power is mine. I have the lemur."

Live-Action TV

Babylon 5: Invoked Trope in the Season 4 finale. A future propagandist is using holographic versions of several main characters to engage in some historical revisionism. When Evil Capitan Sheridan is making a speech in front of a group of about-to-be-executed prisoners, Bruce Boxleitner hams it up for all he's worth.

SF Debris: Doctor Who is a world where no villain has an indoor voice.

NO ONE! OUT HAMS!DAVROS!!!

The Eighth Doctor, in the Big Finish audios, functions as almost a controlled experiment in this trope. When he's himself, he's quite soft-spoken (so you turn up the volume). But if he gets turned evil, he has NO INDOOR VOICE (and you scream and fling your mp3 player of choice as he assaults your ear drums when he turns up the volume too).

I AM BECOME ZAGREUS!note The Doctor is never too evil and hammy to make highbrow references.

Most incarnations of The Master serve up large slices of ham, notably John Simm, Anthony Ainley, and (in spoof The Curse of Fatal Death) Jonathan Pryce. Although he only plays The Master for a few minutes, Derek Jacobi manages to be pretty hammy himself. Quite the change from the mild-mannered Professor Yana.

The Racnoss Empress in "The Runaway Bride" is truly one of the largest hams the series has ever seen. Catherine Tate, in her first appearance as companion Donna Noble, counters with Ham-to-Ham Combat.

BY ALL THE MOONS OF CALLUFRAX, YOU WILL PAY FOR YOUR FAILURE TO NOT MENTION THE PIRATE CAPTAIN FROM THE CLASSIC SERIES SERIAL THE PIRATE PLANET! MR. FIBULI! MR. FIBULI! WHERE IS THAT NINCOMPOOP, MR. FIBULI?!?

Much like Eight, Eleven is a scenery-chewer to start with but gets even hammier when infected with Cyberman-tech in "Nightmare in Silver". Matt Smith's Acting for Two moment as the Cyber-Planner Mr. Clever manages to out ham the Doctor... as the Doctor! "THEEEEEEEY'RRRRRREEE HEEEEEERRREE!"

King Yrcanos from the story "The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp", which is no surprise since he's played by BRIAN BLESSED! However, he only really had that status at the start of the story — The evil, that is. Not the hamminess. In fact, the hamminess just kept increasing as the story progressed.

One of the Fourth Doctor's most cunning moments is in "Shada", where he teases the villain Skagra about his emotionlessness being an affectation, because there is no way he would be fighting someone who didn't have a "manic gleam" in the eye and keep announcing things like "The universe belongs to me!!" Skagra pretends to be above that sort of thing, but still heads headfirst into Villainous Breakdown between his plan failing and the Doctor intentionally annoying him, eventually being reduced to having a manic gleam in the eye and shouting things like "The universe belongs to me!"

Averted in the Tenth Doctor audio story "Dead Air", in which the sound creature impersonating the Doctor's voice is almost right and can semi-convincingly get the patter down but has a noticeably flatter and less dramatic delivery to its words than the (actual) Doctor narrating the events.

Professor Zaroff is so shouty, mad-eyed and completely over-the-top that it keys off the Genre Savvy Doctor into knowing he's Obviously Evil long before anyone else has figured it out. And no-one else seems to understand this, much to the Doctor's confusion.

The Master (not that one) possessing Padmarsambhavar in "The Abominable Snowman" endlessly, hopelessly overacts everything he says and pulls this off in the audio recording. You can even hear the microphone popping as he hisses and spits his consonants.

The Seventh Doctor lampshades this when he interrupts Davros in "Remembrance of the Daleks".

Game of Thrones: Ramsay Snow, Lord Bolton's bastard son. Initially, while pretending to be Theon Greyjoy's friend and rescuer, he seems quite calm and soft spoken; however, the moment he reveals his true colors, he turns into a giggling, jumpy, mood-swinging, psychotic Large Ham.

Kamen Rider OOO: Kougami (an extremelyLarge Ham as is) makes a Kamen Rider movie in-universe. Everyone playing a villain in the film suddenly becomes a gigantic ham, especially Ankh as the Big Bad, who gives Kougami a run for his money. Of course, this might be because he's still kind of a villain anyway.

Rita's boss Lord Zedd manages to equally as hammy with No Indoor Voice. His volume typically consists either of shouting, or really shouting.

It's basically required for any Power Rangers villain to be hammy enough to reach Camp status.

Tommy / the original Green Ranger. As a good guy, not really much hammier than the other Rangers. As a bad guy? "MUHAHAHA! I will DESTROY the Power Rangers!" He reverts to this when brainwashed by Gasket in Zeo.

The Evil Queen and Rumpelstiltskin are both rather hammy in the Enchanted Forest. Rumpelstiltskin combines this with Giggling Villain, The Evil Queen absolutely devours the scenery. Regina and Mr. Gold, their human Storybrooke counterparts, however, are not.

Rumpelstiltskin is probably hammier than Mr. Gold because he's also far crazier, Regina on the other hand was probably hamming it up for kicks.

You thought the Evil Queen was hammy? Wait until you see her impersonate Ursula. Lana Parrilla is clearly having the time of her life.

Dr. Whale's true identity turns out to be Dr. Frankenstein. He's as hammy as you'd expect.

Red Dwarf: Any of the characters from WaxWorld's "Villain World" qualify. Among the villains are the particularly hammy Caligula and Napoleon.

Revolution: Captain, no, Major Tom Neville engages in this at times. Bass describing how he'd use a working Blackhawk helicopter against the other republics is pure ham.

Robin Hood: In this 2006 BBC production, NO ONE chews more scenery than the Sheriff of Nottingham. NO ONE.

Sherlock: Moriarty, to a certain extent. He's very hammy when he feels like it, but is just as good at being calm and creepy when that suits him better.

Smallville: Clark would become far hammier whenever he was under the influence of Red K or switched out for an evil doppelganger. And that's without getting into the series' villains. Between John Glover as Lionel Luthor, Creator/Michael Rosenbaum's Lex Luthor, and Callum Blue's scenery chewing as the horrifically unstable Major Zod, the show had this trope covered.

"Unlike you I will lead from a throne, not from the shadows. Everyone on Earth, including the woman you love, will Kneel Before Zod!"

Invoked Trope in the episode "Duet". Aamin Marritza, a Cardassian filing clerk who worked in a forced labor camp run by the brutal Gul Darhe'el impersonates the latter both to make Cardassia admit to the crimes committed there against the Bajorans and to soothe his guilty conscience over not being able to stop it. While impersonating Darhe'el he acts pretty hammy, but when the ruse is dropped, he acts far more subdued. This is used to great effect when Kira confronts him with the truth and Maritza gives another hammy rant only to break down in tears once the memories and the guilt start flooding in.

Also, an early episode where Dr. Bashir came down with a bad case of Grand Theft Me thanks to a dying evil space criminal gave Alexander Siddig the chance to let his ham flag fly.

And let's not even get started on the holodeck Bond villain played by Captain Sisko, which allowed Avery Brooks to chew up every bit of scenery around him in ways taken Up to Eleven (and obviously had the time of his life doing it.)

Although William Shatner usually negates this trope since he's the hero, when Captain Kirk was split into good and evil selves in the episode "The Enemy Within", the evil side was much hammier.

"I'm Captain Kirk! I'm Captain Kirk!IIIIII'M CAPTAIN KIRK!"

He does it again when we briefly see the evil Mirror Universe Kirk in "Mirror, Mirror".

Same goes for every character in the mirror universe episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. Most of the actors were at near-Shatner levels of hamminess even during the normal episodes, but their evil counterparts take things Up to Eleven.

Emperor Scientist Dr Chaotica in that Flash Gordon (serial) holodeck homage, The Adventures of Captain Proton. The entire program is a World of Ham with even Captain Janeway joining in, so naturally the villain has to outham everyone or get left behind.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL! You shall PAY for your inCOMPetence! SEIZE HIM!"

Inverted in "Living Witness", where a 'historical recreation' of Voyager shows the crew as squabbling genocidal thugs with a side of ham. Yet the most evil characters in the simulation, Janeway and the Doctor, speak in a calm undertone that contrasts with their normal hammy personas.

Evil!Jean:(grabs Quark's shirt) Commander, you're such a SPACE-HEAD, I'M taking over this ship!

Evil!Quark: Try it, transmute, and you're SPACE JELLY!

Music Video

Shakespears Sister's "Stay" is a Concept Video where Marcella Detroit and Siobhan Fahey portray Anthropomorphic Personifications of life and death and fight over a comatose man. Fahey's performance as death is definitely the more over-the-top of the two, mainly due to her dramatic gestures and facial expressions.

In Poseidon's Fury, Lord Darkenon is about as hammy as a villain could possibly get, always doing an evil laugh and just reveling in how sinister he is.

Video Games

Mad Scientist Dr. Nefarious of the Ratchet & Clank series. He simply delights in being as over-the-top ham as possible, despite wanting to exterminate all organic life from the universe. It really says something that, in a World of Ham like Ratchet and Clank, he manages to continuously out-ham everyone.

Pick the Big Bad of a Kingdom Hearts game. Any one of 'em. They're this trope. Ansem, Seeker of Darkness/Xehanort's Heartless gets an extra special mention here. Also, see the Disney Villains list above.

Ends up being inverted in Kingdom Hearts 3D, where one of the villain remains calm and demure until he does turn full-on evil. He's Xehanort from the past, before he was corrupted by Darkness. Given that Master Xehanort is one of the characters with the highest potentials for Ham, apparently Evil Makes You Hammy.

Arius from Devil May Cry. "OH! NO! I was going to be KING of this world!"

Arkham and his devil trigger, Jester, is also a rich source of Ham. With the latter, it's intentional, as he tried to act like a fool in order to effectively play the sons of Sparda and Lady against each other. And it could also be a way of unleashing his inner goofball beneath that serious facade.

Though averted for the most part in the first game, since the Darkspawn can't, you know, talk. Until Awakening, when they can talk and get their full opportunity to be hammy.

Special mention goes to the ham-tastic Mother.

Knight-Commander Meredith in Dragon Age II is one of the best examples in the entire series.

Not to mention Well-Intentioned Extremist teammate Anders; while he's only hammy in combat (actually, he's usually soft-spoken otherwise), his combat taunts (and screaming) are a bountiful platter of ham.

RICHARD: "This wild dog of war is on the move, Michael! It'll bite you if you don't move it! It's time for my afternoon tea. There's nothing like sipping some delicious Darjeeling tea...and watching you getting your clock cleaned!"

Kid Icarus: Uprising: After dispatching the comparatively serious Medusa, Hades steals the show, absolutely ravishing in his evilness like if Tim Curry was an evil god.

BlazBlue: Hazama/Yuuki Terumi. Part of the reason he's so Laughably Evil is because his voice actors are clearly having a hell of a time.

In Platinum's Gag Reel, when Litchi becomes the Evil Overlord 'Boob Queen', she becomes so overly hammy in nearly everything. In canon, however, Litchi is well-reserved and not that hammy (unless you count her suggestive moans of pains to be 'ham'), and even if she's Forced into Evil and in the NOL group, she didn't even become hammy, still retaining her calm. Tsubaki, on the other hand, becomes even more vehement and probably 'hammy' in trying to force the NOL order after her Evil Costume Switch.

Sir Richard Hawksmoor in Ghost Hunter. Sir Michael Gambon practically introduces himself with "I wantFLESH." An incredible contrast with his role of Dumbledore in the movies.

Nergal from the 2003 game Fire Emblem wasn't THAT hammy until we got to see his disfiguring scar by the end of the game. Then, he unleashed his inner ham and let it run wild.

In Starcraft, the Zerg Overmind's first line is: "Awaken, my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright." Every one of its subsequent lines is equally epic and pompous.

"Know that I am the Overmind, the eternal will of the Swarm, and that you have been created to serve me..."

Duran's appearance in Starcraft II is an interesting case: in disguise as Emil Narud, he has a perfectly normal speaking tone. Once he drops the disguise and shows his true colors, though, out comes apocalyptic levels of ham.

Narud: It is only beginning. Amon whispered of this from the stars. He told you of his return... he told you of ruin... extinction... the end of all things.

Maar's brief appearance in Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is also filled to bursting with ham. Now, consider that all three of the above had the same creator, and wonder what his voice must be like...

Amon himself. He fancies himself a god, and he pretty much is, and he talks the part.

Eggman has always showed spades of this, but in more recent games (especially in Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations), he's been invoking this full-on, and he doesn't look like he's going back.

In Portal, once you escape the fire pit, GLaDOS starts along this path. She really goes to town once you incinerate her morality core.

In Portal 2, Wheatley gains several levels in ham when you yank GLaDOS out and plug him in. Apparently, a certain amount of hamminess is literally hardwired into the system.

The Sengoku Basara versions of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Ishida Mitsunari. The first is absolutely, baby-eatingly, skull-cup-usingly Obviously Evil, and even has ominous background music and Dramatic Thunder to back him up. And he's voiced by Norio Wakamoto. Hideyoshi is the type to surround three armies at war, and demand ALL of their surrenders at once in a loud voice and with an even louder fist. He then goes ahead and obliges some hotblooded heroes. He also parts the seas. Mitsunari really likes shouting about what he is going to do to his enemies, specifically those who side with Ieyasu. Mitsunari does not say "Ieyasu!" He says, "IEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASU!!!!!!!!"

The X-Men arcade game introduces us to MAGNETO, MASTER OF MAGNET! Who wants those X-CHICKEN to know that THEY ARE NOTHING and would like to welcome them TO DIE!!

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood: If Cesare wants to live, he lives. If he wants to take, he takes. If he wants you to die, you die. And if he wants to ham, he HAAAAAAAAAMS!

The evilest of all Suikoden villains, Luca Blight, is also the hammiest, with lots of exclamation marks, a distinctive Evil Laugh of "HOO HOO HOO HA HA HA HA HA!!!", and, of course, his famous last words "It took hundreds to kill me, but I KILLED BY THOUSANDS! LOOK AT ME!!! I AM SUBLIME!!! I AM THE TRUE FACE OF EVIL!!!!! *Evil Laughs to death*"

Barlowe in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia normally speaks with a very neutral and verbose tone. However, once his true colours are revealed, he goes nuts with wild abandon, laughing manically the whole time.

And Dracula. In pretty much every game with voice acting. In most games' Japanese dubs, he's voiced by the above-mentioned Norio Wakamoto.

Death from Castlevania: Lords of Shadow simply never shuts up in his 5 minutes hammy speech even though he has been quite normal when he stayed as Zobek, your ally.

Geldoblame, of Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, is far and away the hammiest character in the game and (unintentionally) probably the best-voiced character, just because it's so amusing.

Fawful in the Mario & Luigi series is a hammy lunatic who speaks in the most over the top way possible. Him being the villain in Bowser's Inside Story and being against the aforementioned Bowser is one of the reasons it's seen as so funny.

In Super Paper Mario, most of the hammier characters are the villains. Let's see, there's O'Chunks, Count Bleck, Dimentio, Mr. L, and to a lesser extent, Mimi and Francis. And there's also Bowser as always, so it's probably safe to say that this trope is in full effect in this game.

Galactic Emperor:MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! PUNY HUMANS, JUDGMENT TIME HAS ARRIVED! I'LL FINISH YOU ALL HERE! FIRST THIS PLANET, THEN THE WHOLE GALAXY! YOU AND YOUR SILLY GOTCHA BORGS WILL BE EXTERMINATED!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!

WHAT?! GONE?! That was MY JUSTICE to deliver, BOY, and YOU denied me of it!!

In Bayonetta, Final BossFather Balder has a gleefully campyWorld of Ham to live up to... and manages to outdo the rest of the cast. His fashion sense does a good chunk of the work alone, but his tendency to both chew and hurl the scenery, along with his brutal execution of the gigantic demons Bayonetta conjures to kill him carry him over the top.

In Umineko: When They Cry, after a relatively understated introduction (at least as far as the anime goes), Beatrice becomes the queen of this trope. Subverted. She's not the evil one. Bern is. And she's actually an Emotionless Girl. Although, after The Reveal, she does get a lot more very expressive faces.

Web Animation

The AI O'Malley from Red vs. Blue. Just one example, after he's been asked to examine one of the Blue Team:

O'Malley: We want something from you, but we're not going to tell you what it is, until we need it! Huhuhuhuahahahaha! Church: No way! I'm not agreeing to something without knowing what it is! O'Malley: Huhuhuhuhuhuh Oh yes you will. You will or your little friend Tucker will die, die a most horrible death. And you know his blood will be on your hands. Years from now, you'll drive yourself mad wondering if there was anything you could have done to save him, so you will agree to what I want. You will agree even though what I want is something mysterious, what I want is something frightening, what I want is something PUUUUUUUUUURE EEEEEEEEEEVIL, AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!Beat O'Malley: I've also been told a $20 co-pay is pretty much standard.

Resident Villain Tobe on Pucca. Taken to insanely OTT levels in the Spanish dub.

Homestuck has Caliborn, the epitome of evil who speaks exclusively in ham large enough to overshadow his constant use of capital letters and who speaks so much about conquering everything that you'd wonder if he could just talk them all to death.

What a night be this. Crew! Howl with me, that we might set the seven seas, ablaze with fear! AWOOOOOOOOHHHH!!!

Most of the Megatrons of Transformers tend towards dramatic speeches, bombastic tones, and a flair for impressive presentation.

There's a lot of Ham with all the Decepticons (and Predacons and Vehicons); Megatron just happens to be around the most.

In one episode of Beast Wars, a Mirror Morality Machine turned the laid-back Maximal Rhinox into a Predacon who chewed the scenery with as much gusto as any of them. Being made evil made him hammy to go with it.

Mr. Burns from The Simpsons. "Moments from now, I will wreak a terrible vengeance on this town! NO ONE WILL BE SPARED! NO ONE!

To say nothing of Sideshow Bob.

From Teen Titans, Brother Blood, Trigon, and a lot of the minor villains (notably Control Freak, Mumbo, Mad Mod, Killer Moth, and Dr. Light) are all rather hammy. Averted with the show's main Big Bad, Slade, who almost never varies his voice from a very Creepy Monotone, and the Brain, season five's Big Bad, who speaks through a voice synthesizer and really can't ham.

While The Brain can't ham, Monsieur Mallah, his talking gorilla assistant, does a pretty good job of it.

Xanatos and his wife Fox are always very calm and poised, and their Battle Butler Owen is absolutely (and deliberately) wooden.

Demona can range from dangerously understated to completely hammy depending on her mood, as can Thailog. Sevarius loves to ham it up when he's got an audience, but is calmer and more businesslike otherwise; seeing as how he's voiced by Tim Curry, hamminess is to be expected.

Especially in the appearances after his first, Doctor Octopus becomes a cunning Card-Carrying Villain down to having an Evil Genius coffee mug, and accordingly becomes immensely hammy ("TREACHERY!!!" anyone?).

Green Goblin is a highly amusing Faux Affably Evil ham who retains his original version's wacky personality, manipulative planning, and amazing acrobatism. he is shown to crack sadistic jokes.

Mysterio seems to have walked out of the Silver Age, having an immensely hammy Evil Sorceror persona, talking in a Fake Brit accent, and throwing around Gratuitous Latin. As with the Goblin, Mysterio interestingly isn't all that hammy in his civilian identity. In Mysterio's case, he's partly Doing It for the Art, and for both, it's a combination of a supervillain perk and to hide how dangerous and cunning they actually are.

While more jerkish than evil, the Great and Powerful Trixie is also a veryLarge Ham.

Hammy Pony Villains go back to the original G1 pilot with Tirek. "Behold the Rainbow of DARKNESS!! Bring forth The Night That Never Ends!!!"

His G4 incarnation isn't as hammy at first, until he drains enough magic to get his strength back, and gets even hammier as he take more magic.

While most of the villains from spin off series Equestria Girls are as high on ham as their main series counterparts, particular attention should be paid to Gloriosa Daisy. Given that she's pretty hammy by default it's no surprise that her line deliveries after being corrupted rival Palpatine in their oddness and hilarity, nicely illustrating that she's more crazy than evil.

It's almost a requirement to be a SWAT Kats Villain. Indeed, it would be easier to isolate which ones are not hammy.

Similar to the above, it's a required (or heavily preferred) prerequisite to get on Megas XLR, from Warmaster Gorath to Magnanimous, but the REGIS Mark V takes the cake.

REGIS: You will all beg for mercy, in vain. The debris of your planet shall litter this solar system. I shall suck upon your very atoms.

Subverted on Young Justice. After her plan to take over Qurac is foiled, cameras catch Queen Bee shaking her fist at the presidential palace, screaming that "Qurac will be mine!" However, she turns out to actually be M'gann, disguising herself as Queen Bee so that people would know she was behind the scheme. Later when M'gann meets the real Queen Bee, she turns out to be a Softspoken Sadist who calls her performance "a bit over-the-top."

Played straight with Gordon Godfrey. He's a news anchor voiced by Tim Curry, who is secretly an agent of Darkseid. So far he hasn't been seen off his news show so that persona could very well be an act.

Peridot from Steven Universe was introduced as a calm and cold villain, but quickly became on of the hammiest characters on the show after she got stranded on Earth. She shouts her lines, laughs maniacally and sometimes even makes faces at the heroes. Surprisingly, she becomes even hammier after her Heel–Face Turn.

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